Chilean police arrest four alleged NASA hackers...

Police in Chile are reported to have arrested four suspected computer hackers earlier this week, accusing them of hacking into the computer systems of thousands of organisations around the world.

Many of these sites, Police Chief Gerardo Raventos is quoted as saying, including government sites. The alleged hackers are also said to have gained unauthorised access to NASA's portals.

In total, the hacker group are thought to have gained unauthorised access to more than 8,000 sites, including some run by the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Turkey, the US and Venezuela.

One of the alleged hackers, as they arrived at police HQ on Monday, shouted to waiting reporters that they had acted "for fun" in their exploits.

Police Chief Raventos, meanwhile, said the suspects were members of a large international hacking group that had been under investigation for eight months with the co-operation of authorities in the US, Israel and several South American countries.

Chief Raventos identified Leonardo Hernandez, aged 23, as the Chilean hackers' leader. Hernandez - aka Nettoxic - is reportedly wanted in several countries. The other alleged hackers are known as SSH-2, Codiox and Phnx.

Now the bad news - if convicted, the alleged hackers could face up to five years in clink for what they've done...